1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for reproducing and displaying program-associated information in synchronism with a TV (television) program which is reproduced by a program storing device such as VCR in a system which comprises a TV program storing device such as VCR and/or a data information displaying device such as PC (personal computer).
2. Description of the Related Art
As one of conventional methods for reproducing the program-associated information in synchronism with a TV program, there was a method which comprises embedding data of program-associated HTML file in vertical blanking interval of a TV signal in a broadcast station, transmitting the TV signal from a broadcast station, receiving the TV signal by a PC-based receiver, separating the data of program-associated HTML, and displaying the data of HTML file in synchronism with a TV program on a display of PC.
However, in the conventional method as described above, if there is an intervention of VCR between a broadcast station and PC, it is impossible to display the data of HTML file with synchronism with a TV program because of the loss of the data of HTML file in VCR. A part of the data of HTML file in vertical blanking interval is lost at switching position between a field and another.
Further, the above problem makes it difficult for a third party such as IP (information provider) to provide the program-associated information. In general, IP cannot know the contents of a TV program in advance, and thus IP provides program-associated information subsequently to the broadcast of the TV program. In order to synchronously reproduce the program-associated information and the TV program in a home for example, the TV broadcasting program must be temporarily recorded in a program storage device such as a VCR or the like. However, there has not been hitherto provided any method for synchronously reproducing TV programs stored in the VCR or the like and the program-associated information supplied from IP.
The object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method for reproducing and displaying the program-associated information in synchronism with a TV program which is reproduced by a program storing device such as VCR in a system which comprises a TV program storing device such as VCR and/or a data information displaying device such as PC.
According to the present invention, there is provided an information reproducing apparatus which comprises a program storage device for storing programs, a program information output device for generating and outputting program information containing program ID information, in-program time information, etc. on the basis of information which is stored together with the programs in the program storage device, and a program-associated information reproducing device for selecting suitable program-associated information according to the program ID information and reproducing a suitable portion of the program-associated information according to the in-program time information.